Silk Road

The Silk Road was an ancient network of trade routes, formally established during the Han Dynasty of China, which linked the regions of the ancient world in commerce. The European explorer Marco Polo (1254-1324) traveled on these routes and described them in depth in his famous work but he is not credited with naming them. This network of roads were coined by the German geographer and traveler, Ferdinand von Richthofen, in 1877, who designated them Seidenstrasse (silk road).